Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer outline the economic imperative of fixing the budget? How will fixing the budget lead to more and better jobs?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I say to the member for Cowan that as part of our economic action strategy of getting rid of the carbon tax and fixing the budget—as a result of those initiatives and many more—we can build a stronger more robust economy where more jobs are created and every household has the opportunity to enjoy greater prosperity.

In the interim, the best way to do that is to pass the budget. Why pass the budget? Because it is a credible plan that has been laid down to start the repair job on the horrible legacy of Labor—$123 billion in deficits, $667 billion of debt, and rising unemployment in an environment where you have falling terms of trade. I am not the only one saying this. We have had the Governor of the Reserve Bank saying 'Get on with it.' The Secretary of the Treasury is saying, 'Get on with it.' Moody's credit rating is saying, 'Get on with it.' The Parliamentary Budget Officer is saying, 'Get on with it.' Then there are John Edwards from the RBA, and Angel Gurria from the OECD. Even Wayne Swan, who described the budget position as 'ruinous' said that you have to have budget repair.

The starting point for budget repair must be for the Labor Party to stand by its own promises to implement savings from the last budget. The Labor Party was so concerned about the state of the budget last year that they introduced a whole lot of savings measures. Even today, the member for McMahon had the chutzpah to stand up here and say, 'Back us on our former savings measures.' The only problem is that Labor is not backing their former savings measures.

This morning we saw the Leader of the Opposition on the AM program. When Chris Uhlmann was speaking to him it was like listening to Clarke and Dawe. Chris Uhlmann asked:

… why won't you even back your own cuts?

Bill Shorten replied:

Chris, we're the Labor Party.

Oh, I understand now! He won't back his own policies, because he is in the Labor Party. Chris Uhlmann then asked:

… you're now not even agreeing to cuts that you proposed yourself … . Why's that?

Bill Shorten replied:

Well, Chris, first of all, the world has changed a lot in the last 12 months.

Chris Uhlmann then asked:

… why won't you back the cuts that you proposed yourself?

To which Bill Shorten replied:

… how can we agree to what this rotten Government is doing?

It is your government that proposed the cuts. How can anyone have sense like this. Bill Shorten was asked how you fix the budget. He said:

Well, the budget task is always to make sure you've got a proper balance between expenditure and revenue …

Well done! An economic genius—a budget idiot! (Time expired)